Bharatiya Lok Dal

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Bharatiya Lok Dal ( BLD , Hindi भारतीय लोक दल , "Indian People's Party"), or from 1979 Lok Dal ( LKD , Hindi लोक दल , "People's Party") was a political party in India from 1974 to 1977 and again from 1979 was active. In 1988 the party was largely absorbed by the newly founded Janata Dal .

Party history

From the founding in 1974 to the formation of the Janata Party in 1977

The party was officially founded on May 29, 1974 through the merger of seven parties. The seven founding parties had previously decided to dissolve and merge themselves at a meeting in Delhi on May 12, 1974 . The seven parties were as follows:

The most important founding parties were the former four, while the latter three were only small splinter parties. The BKD was founded in 1967 by Chaudhary Charan Singh as a split from the Congress Party . Singh rejected the politics of collectivization of land and the dirigistic planned economy of the Congress Party and the BKD was essentially a party of the landowning farmers of Northern India. The Swatantra party was a party that also advocated a market economy and not a planned economy, and in which large landowners, industrialists and members of former princely dynasties were prominently represented. In terms of foreign policy, the Swatantra party spoke out in favor of a western orientation for India, in contrast to the Congress Party, which worked closely with the Soviet Union on foreign policy . Utkal Congress was created in 1970 in the state of Orissa when a faction under Biju Patnaik split off from the Congress Party. The Samyukta Socialist Party ("United Socialist Party") represented left-wing socialist demands.

What all parties had in common and thus the real common denominator was the rejection of the government of Indira Gandhi, which was perceived as “dictatorial” or autocratic . The great victory of Indira Gandhi in the 1971 elections was made possible by the fragmentation of the opposition and the current relative majority voting system based on the British model. The BLD was founded mainly to be able to oppose Indira Gandhi with an effective opposition. Charan Singh was elected the first chairman.

The party’s base was still seen as too weak (in the 1971 election the seven founding parties had won almost 10% of the vote) to be able to stand up to the all-powerful Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In the election to the Parliament of Gujarat from June 8th to 11th, 1975, the BLD met with other major opposition parties, mainly the Jana Sangh and the Congress (O) , on a joint election platform. The elections were successful for this so-called Janata Front . After that, voices were raised that the parties involved should unite to form a unified national party. However, this intention was not implemented, since on June 25, 1975, at the instigation of Indira Gandhi, a state of emergency was declared and the opposition was suppressed by police measures. Only after the state of emergency was relaxed on January 18, 1977 and the announcement of new elections, the above-mentioned opposition parties were able to move freely again and joined forces on January 23, 1977 in Delhi and a little later on April 30, 1977 after the alliance won the 1977 elections had to form a new party, the Janata Party .

Established in 1979

During the government of the Janata Party there were increasing personal differences, especially between Charan Singh, who was a member of the cabinet first as Minister of the Interior and later as Minister of Finance, and Prime Minister Morarji Desai . The superficial point of contention was Desai's allegedly negligent attitude towards the Hindu nationalist faction in the Janata Party. On July 15, 1979, Singh resigned from the Janata Party and with his supporters founded a new party, the Janata Party (Secular) , which was essentially a new edition of the Bharatiya Lok Dal. Shortly thereafter, the party was called Lok Dal (LKD, "People's Party"). In the two subsequent elections in 1980 and 1984, the party still led by Singh won a few constituencies. However, it could no longer build on its great success of 1977. In 1987 Singh died and in 1989 his party was largely absorbed by the newly formed Janata Dal . Small remnants united in 1998 with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which was founded in 1996 by Ajit Singh , the son of Charan Singh.

Election results

The following table shows the results of the all-India parliamentary elections (1977: BLD, 1980 and 1984: LKD).

year choice voting
share
Seats in parliament
1977 IndiaIndia Elected Lok Sabha in 1977 41.32%
295/542
1980 IndiaIndia Election for Lok Sabha in 1980 9.39%
41/529
1984 IndiaIndia Elected Lok Sabha in 1984 5.97%
3/514

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d G.G. Mirchandani: 320 million judges . Abhinav Publications, 2003, ISBN 978-81-7017-061-7 , pp. 83 ff . (English).
  2. ^ Clemens Jürgensmeier: The 7th parliamentary elections in India (I): A triumphant victory for Indira Gandhi? International Asia Forum, Vol. 12 (1981), No. 1, pp. 5-33. Link to the full text
  3. ^ Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed October 12, 2014 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence).
  4. ^ The founding parties of the Janata Party had formally united before the 1977 election. However, they were counted as separate parties by the Indian Electoral Commission.
  5. ↑ In the 1980 election, the Indian electoral commission still ran Lok Dal as the Janata Party (Secular) .